A $40 million Armed Forces Reserve Center is in the works at Camp Bullis on the city's far Northwest Side.

The Reserve Center as well as the $92 million Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma now under way at Fort Sam Houston are the first projects slated for construction here as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision.

According to Fred Grant, with the Army Corps. of Engineers, Louisville District, the two new buildings, which will encompass a total of 171,000 square feet, will be used by the U.S. Army and the U.S. National Guard.

"It's (the Reserve Center) got training facilities, conference facilities, administrative offices and storage," says Kirk Kistner, vice president of marketing and business development with San Antonio-based contractor Bartlett-Cocke. "It's for the reservists out at Camp Bullis because the number of reservists are growing."

Construction work on the new Reserve Center kicked off quietly this month with completion slated for August 2009.

Bartlett-Cocke, through a joint venture with Detroit-based Walbridge Aldinger Co., was selected last year by the Army Corps of Engineers to be the design-build contractor for the project. The partnership is called the Walbridge/Bartlett-Cocke Joint Venture.

Kistner says the Reserve Center will be the team's 12th project together.

"We are responsible for the design and the construction of the facility," he says. "We have hired architect and engineers for the project."

In fact, the venture recently announced that Pennsylvania-based Michael Baker Corp. will provide architectural and engineering services for the project under a $2.4 million subcontract.

"We are very pleased to be selected for this contract for a number of reasons," says Rick Bernet, project manager with Michael Baker Corp. "It allows Baker to build our working relationship with two premier construction companies and enhance our experience working in the design-build arena."

The BRAC action encompasses about 78 new and renovated primary facilities, which will total about 6 million square feet and entail more than $2 billion in construction-related spending in San Antonio.

The facilities will be located at Fort Sam Houston, Camp Bullis, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base.

The main projects taking place in San Antonio will be the renovation of Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) to handle all in-patient hospital care and civilian trauma care and the conversion of Wilford Hall Medical Center into an ambulatory care clinic that will focus on outpatient care.

Another large piece of the BRAC puzzle includes the consolidation of all medical training programs for all military branches at Fort Sam Houston.

That effort will involve the construction of the Medical Education and Training Campus (METC), which will include 2 million square feet of dorms, classrooms, labs, training areas and dining facilities.

The METC will accommodate an average daily enrollment of more than 9,000 students.

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